PRODUCT PLACEMENT IN COMICS: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF ATTITUDES OF COMIC BOOK READERS By KRISTOFER MEHAFFEY A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ADVERTISING UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2010 1 © 2010 Kristofer Mehaffey 2 To my parents, Billy and Barbara Mehaffey, and my big sister, Megan, for their support, encouragement and patience throughout all the years of my education and beyond 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to acknowledge my family for their wonderful support throughout my life. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my parents and sister for their continued support, encouragement, and occasional kick in the butt. They have been a blessing beyond words. I would also like to acknowledge the guidance of my thesis chair, Dr. Debbie Treise. Without her patience and faith in helping me craft this paper, I would not have even known how to begin. A special thank you and acknowledgment is also due to my thesis committee members, Dr. Jon Morris, Dr. Jorge Villegas and Associate Professor Ted Spiker, who each brought a unique voice and perspective to the entire process. Thank you to all of my friends who have supported me over the years, despite having to put up with my various eccentricities. A special thank you to those who have offered a shoulder to lean on and an ear to listen endlessly while I droned on about advertising, product placement and comics: Carlo and William Francis, Brian Mullahey, Mahesh Vaidyanathan, Brendt Montgomery, Nandy Ferguson, Bobby Harper, and Taryn Emswiler. Finally, a special thanks to Joe Maimone, Brian Pulido, Tim Townsend, Jimmy Palmiotti and Abram Sauer for their professional insights, without which this paper would have been far more difficult to write and far less informative. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 7 ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 9 A Channel in Transition ........................................................................................... 10 Enter Product Placement ........................................................................................ 12 Point of Difference / Point of Distress...................................................................... 14 Organization of Thesis ............................................................................................ 15 2 LITERATURE REVIEW........................................................................................... 16 Product Placement .................................................................................................. 16 Consumer Attitude and Behavior...................................................................... 18 Consumer Attitude and Experience .................................................................. 19 Comics and Comic Books ....................................................................................... 21 Comics Consumers as Advertising Audience................................................... 23 The Sponsored Page........................................................................................ 25 Product Placement in Comic Books.................................................................. 27 Exploratory Research Questions............................................................................. 32 3 METHOD................................................................................................................. 39 Research Design..................................................................................................... 39 Qualitative Research ............................................................................................... 39 Focus Groups and In-Depth Interviews ............................................................ 40 Source and Selection of Participants................................................................ 42 Data Collection.................................................................................................. 43 Data Analysis.................................................................................................... 45 Visual Stimuli .................................................................................................... 46 Member Checking............................................................................................. 47 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION................................................................................ 48 General Attitudes Toward Advertising and Product Placement .............................. 48 Narrative Reality, Economic Practicality and Artistic Integrity ................................. 51 Theme 1: Drawn to Realism ............................................................................. 52 Subcategory 1: Appreciation of Realism .................................................... 52 Subcategory 2: Interruption ........................................................................ 54 5 Theme 2: Cost of Doing Business .................................................................... 56 Subcategory 1: Mitigation of Consumer Cost............................................. 57 Subcategory 2: Strengthening the Industry ................................................ 59 Theme 3: Selling Out ........................................................................................ 60 5 SUMMARY, IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................................... 62 Answering the Research Questions and Generating Theory .................................. 62 Practical Implications............................................................................................... 65 Limitations ............................................................................................................... 68 Suggestions for Future Research............................................................................ 70 Conclusion............................................................................................................... 73 APPENDIX A FOCUS GROUP MODERATOR’S GUIDE.............................................................. 74 B INTERVIEWER’S GUIDE........................................................................................ 78 C IRB and Letters of Consent ..................................................................................... 80 In-depth interview.............................................................................................. 80 Focus group...................................................................................................... 81 D SAMPLE FOCUS GROUP TRANSCRIPT .............................................................. 82 E SAMPLE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT..................................................................... 84 F PRODUCT PLACEMENT THE MARVEL WAY: AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER MARVEL ADVERTISING DIRECTOR JOE MAIMONE.......................... 85 LIST OF REFERENCES................................................................................................ 94 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 101 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 1 Dashiell Hammett’s Adventures of Sam Spade ....................................................... 33 2 “Batman and the Mummy”........................................................................................ 34 3 The Irredeemable Ant-Man, No. 10.......................................................................... 35 4 X-Men: The 190, No. 4. ............................................................................................ 35 5 Panel of New X-Men provided to Wall Street Journal .............................................. 36 6 New X-Men, No. 20. ................................................................................................. 36 7 Punisher War Journal, No. 18. ................................................................................. 37 8 Rush City, No. 1 ....................................................................................................... 37 9 Catwoman, No. 73.................................................................................................... 38 10 Secret Warriors, No. 3.............................................................................................. 38 7 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master in Advertising PRODUCT PLACEMENT IN COMICS: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF ATTITUDES OF COMIC BOOK READERS By Kristofer Mehaffey May 2010 Chair: Debbie Treise Major: Advertising This thesis provides an understanding of how product placements in comic books are interpreted within the framework of comics consumers’ reading experience. Building on previous qualitative research and the grounded theory perspective of social science, the researcher gathered rich, experiential data through two qualitative methods: focus group discussions and in-depth, individual interviews. Three focus groups and seven interviews of